Doing the "Charleston"

23 January 2014, Thursday
Today we hope to get to Charleston, South Carolina. 


Sunrise

We will travel 63 miles today.  Remember when I stated that I thought we got away unscathed from the Southport Marina Fuel Dock?  We stopped today at the Isle of Palms Marina for fuel.  This is located a few miles prior to entering Charleston Harbor.  When I got off of the boat, I looked at the side near the waterline, and there was a 20 foot long black scar down the side of the boat.  I became somewhat distressed as I attempted to scrub it off.  It appeared to me that it had gouged into the fiberglass below the gelcoat.  Now, in addition to that, we had tried starting the generator earlier in the day and the battery appeared to be dead.  Appearances were not deceiving, it was dead.  Up at the Marina's Ships Store, they had a sale on batteries so we bought one.  They were also having a sale on lunch items so we got some of that.

The Kitchen Staff Posing

So, on to the Charleston City Marina.  This was not the marina that we had stayed at in June.  As we were crossing the harbor, I called the marina and asked for a space.  This marina has what is called the "Mega-Dock".  The marina's MegaDock extends 1,530 feet and is the longest free-standing floating fuel dock in the Southeast.  We had read numerous reviews of this facility, and there were quite a few complaints about the distance from the restrooms, showers and laundry from boaters that were placed on the MegaDock.  When I made the reservation over the phone they assigned us to a spot quite a ways down the dock. I had told them that I had a "handicapped" member of my crew and I would like a spot closer to avoid walking and they replied that they would haul any gimps with their golf cart.  When we got close, I called them on the radio for directions, they placed us up in the number two spot on the MegaDock, we could not have been much closer.  We had discussed finding a place to stay a couple of days, to relax and catch up on chores.  I determined that this would be the place.  There is much to do here from this location.  I did not factor in the weather doing us in though.